Ike intersects Duna Geocentric Orbit...

[ajk1139]

Sounds like a problem if I'm trying to do a "Place a Satelliite in Geocentric Orbit around Duna" mission...

[Jupiter3927]

Ike is in geosynchronous orbit around Duna.
Put your satellite in perfect (or near perfect) synchronous orbit around Duna far away from Ike and it shouldn't be a problem.

It's like deploying relays around Kerbin when you want them so far apart but Ike will destroy anything that gets too close.

[ajk1139]

Whoops, completely forgot about that. Thanks guys!

[Overclock]

yea, duna and ike are tidally locked to each other, like pluto and charon

[ajk1139]

Tital locking means that the same side of a satellite always faces the body it's orbiting. Like the Moon. We only see the "light side of the Moon" and we never see the opposite, "dark side." The Moon is not in geocentric orbit. It's a different phenomenon.

[edorward]

I don't think you mean geocentric.

[Azunai]

it actually isn't a different phenomenon. in the case of earth and moon, only the moon is tidally locked to the earth, but not vice versa. in other systems (like the mentioned pluto + charon, or the fictional duna & ike) both bodies are tidally locked to each other.

since the moon actually slows down the earth's rotation (very very slightly) it's possible that in some distant future the earth will also be tidally locked with the moon.

right now, an earth day would have to be slowed down to 1 month for that to happen - in that case the geostationary orbit would be (roughly) equivalent to the orbital distance of the moon. the moon would still "jump" up and down in the sky since it's orbital plane isn't perpendicular to the earth rotation axis.

[ajk1139]

Originally posted by Azunai:

it actually isn't a different phenomenon. in the case of earth and moon, only the moon is tidally locked to the earth, but not vice versa. in other systems (like the mentioned pluto + charon, or the fictional duna & ike) both bodies are tidally locked to each other.

since the moon actually slows down the earth's rotation (very very slightly) it's possible that in some distant future the earth will also be tidally locked with the moon.

right now, an earth day would have to be slowed down to 1 month for that to happen - in that case the geostationary orbit would be (roughly) equivalent to the orbital distance of the moon. the moon would still "jump" up and down in the sky since it's orbital plane isn't perpendicular to the earth rotation axis.

Ah. Thanks for clarifying.